Other

More of the Story

YES! in the World

Susan Gleason

Sanctuary Issue Makes Waves

Summer 2017

Our Sanctuary Issue looked at the varied ways states, cities, churches, and everyday people are taking bold steps to resist the xenophobic stances of the Trump administration by providing welcome and protection for immigrants, refugees, and other vulnerable communities.

Stories from our special coverage have been making waves in immigrant rights circles. Norman Allen’s article about the exceptional risks faced by LGBTQ refugees — and groups like Tucson-based Mariposas Sin Fronteras (Butterflies Without Borders) and Casa Ruby in Washington D.C., that provide safe refuge for them — struck a particular chord. The Human Rights Campaign featured the article in its Equality Tipsheet, and Southern Poverty Law Center, Transgender Law Center, United We Dream, Research and Education for LGBT and Allied Youth (RELAY), the Women’s Refugee Commission, and The National Center for Transgender Equality are some of the civil rights organizations that shared the article in social media feeds:

“A must-read from @yesmagazine on unique needs of those who are both undocumented AND transgender and how to help.” — Marguerite Casey Foundation, Twitter post

“Did you know that 267,000 people in the U.S. are LGBTQ undocumented immigrants? Learn more about their stories, the resources available, and the resilience within.” —NASPA Undocumented Immigrants and Allies Knowledge Community, Facebook post

Yessenia Funes’ article, “You Don’t Need a Sanctuary City to Help Your Immigrant Neighbors,” sparked a flurry of calls to FaithAction International House, an immigrant-support group in Greensboro, North Carolina. FaithAction had organized a series of meetings bringing police officers into direct conversation with undocumented community members at local churches. These community conversations eventually led to the development of the FaithAction ID, a community-trusted identification that undocumented residents can use at local businesses, schools, and health clinics.

Rev. David Fraccaro, executive director of FaithAction, said that, after the YES! story was published, his group received several inquiries from people in other cities who were interested in setting up similar programs. He heard from an organizer in Ames, Iowa, a small town which is experiencing demographic shifts because of immigration.

The Iowa man contacted Fraccaro “when I saw what you’re doing with the police department, who we’ve always seen as the enemy, not someone we really trust.” Fracarro has counseled several such groups about how to launch projects like FaithAction’s. “It's about action that’s actually leading to solutions, and those actions aren’t just in big, progressive cities, but in smaller, rural areas.”

50 Solutions Issue Inspires Follow-up Roadtrip for Policymakers

Winter 2017

Our 20th-anniversary issue tracked 50 grassroots solutions in each of the 50 states, inspired by YES! co-founder Sarah van Gelder’s roadtrip and book The Revolution Where You Live. ICLEI, an organization of local governments working on sustainability issues around the world, launched its own, the American Resilience Roadtrip. Reporter Ben Colombo is traveling around the U.S. for one year, tracking how city governments, nonprofits, and local citizens are building sustainable, resilient, and equitable cities. What inspired the project, says ICLEI USA program officer Kale Roberts, was that YES!’s coverage didn’t just feature the work being done by big cities: “You were in rural places and small towns and communities that don’t get a lot of face time,” he said. Roberts said that the hope is that officials from big cities like Miami to small towns in Mississippi can learn from each other’s innovations.

From the Publisher

YES! for the Future

Christine Hanna

Christine Hanna

Earlier this year, I replaced Fran Korten as the executive director of YES! Magazine.

Okay, that’s clearly crazy talk. Replace Fran Korten?!?

In all sincerity, Fran is something of a legend in my mind and heart, and the minds and hearts of many others. This is a woman who gave up a powerful job at the Ford Foundation to join a tiny startup magazine in the basement of a house near Seattle. But she wasn’t crazy. She was a believer. She believed that YES! Magazine, small as it was, had the power to change the world—one person, one community at a time.

In the 20 years since, Fran, Sarah van Gelder, David Korten, and many others turned that little magazine into the media presence it is today—inspiring millions with a vision of what’s possible when people work together to build a more just, sustainable, and compassionate world.

When she departed, Fran told me that her greatest wish is to secure the future of this organization she has poured her heart and soul into.

To honor her wish, our board has created a special Fran Korten Legacy Fund. The fund will help YES! weather unexpected storms and enable YES! to respond to special opportunities for powerful impact.

A number of our readers have asked how they can honor Fran. Fran’s answer? Consider making a one-time gift to the Fran Korten Legacy Fund and secure the future of YES!

Our goal is $100,000. That’s ambitious. But would Fran have it any other way? I hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on her life and the tremendous contribution she’s made to each of us and to our world. Whatever you can contribute will be deeply appreciated by Fran, and by all of us working to carry forward her legacy.

Contributors

The Just Transition Issue

Bill McKibben

McKibben is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and co-founder of the climate group 350.org. “It’s always great fun to get to meet the fighters you really admire. I was pleased as punch when YES! asked me to interview Jacqui Patterson, because I’ve followed her work at the NAACP for a long time. But I didn’t know much about the backstory she reveals here, and which gives her story even greater power.”

Kayla DeVault

DeVault is an Anishinaabe and enrolled Shawnee, living on the Navajo reservation. She currently works as a research assistant/engineer under contracts with the Diné Policy Institute and the U.S. Department of Energy. She studies both Diné studies and American Indian studies and will begin a doctoral program in tribal energy policy. She was a youth ambassador for Generation Indigenous and a participant in the Obama administration’s White House Tribal Youth Gathering.

Cecile Andrews

Andrews has been a leader of the simplicity movement and is the author of Circle of Simplicity, Slow is Beautiful, Less is More, and the recent Living Room Revolution: A Handbook for Conversation, Community, and the Common Good. She works at building local community in the PhinneyWood neighborhood of Seattle. See her TedxSantaCruz talk: “Can We Talk?” She is a former community college administrator and earned her doctorate in education from Stanford University.

We don’t use standard copyright licensing on our work because we want you to pass along our stories of hope and positive change. See our online Reprints Page for easy steps to take when sharing our content: www.yesmagazine.org/reprints